Crosby, Stills and Nash @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham 18th September 2015

This is the hardest review I have had to write.  My problem is that as much as I love what Crosby, Stills and Nash have achieved in their 40 odd years making music together and alone, and as much as enjoyed my first experience of Crosby and Nash live about 4 years ago, tonight’s show at Symphony Hall, left me cold… Because I have such reservations about the show, I really needed to consider what it was that failed, to substantiate my negative feelings, knowing that many will string me up for daring to offer any criticism.  If you don’t want to read an honest opinion about the show and just want someone to say ‘It’s great’, then just read this part and no more.  For anyone else interested, please feel free to add your opinions in the comments, but don’t resort to personal insults if you disagree.

I had hoped that the addition of Stephen Stills to my initial experience of the C and N of CSN live would improve on that show, but the wondrous S almost made me realise how much of a cliche C and N had become, as his lack of pretence makes theirs all the more obvious.  You see, Graham and David have ended up as caricatures of themselves: so Graham continues to perform barefoot in his double denim, acting very serious and protesting politely and fruitlessly about the whales and the US administration (as if the crisis in the Middle East and Europe does not reach the American news agencies), and David keeps up his stoned hippy vibe, believing that as long as he never cuts his hair he will always be bona fide and will still be sticking it to the man.  It has been a long time since the 60’s and where once these guys made a valid statement and were actually revolutionary in many ways, they have become ‘the man’ themselves: an institution, a safe path well trodden, and frankly uninspiring.

The first thing that strikes me about CSN’s desire to please and not upset any apple carts is the way the band’s visual disappointment in their uninspiring audience (who watch 95 % of the show like an oil painting, fixed and lifeless) doesn’t ignite any passion in them to get the crowd to move or interact.  Normally when Nash’s uplifting “Marrakesh Express” or almost cast iron singalong song “Our House” is played, there is a stir, not tonight; when Nash and Stills request some noise for Still’s “Love the One You’re With” and are greeted with a murmur, only Stills looks as though he wants to kick some asses; Nash just continues with a stoic acceptance that his audience, who are as old, if not older than he, are not going to give a lot back, and resigns himself to playing in front of a flock of flaccid folks.

I have witnessed this reluctance in a Symphony Hall audience before, and more passionate performers are more than able to move them, if they are bothered enough.  It really seems tonight that CSN will just play until the setlist runs out, and then they will all go home.

That is not to say that the show is totally uninspiring.  Stephen Stills’ guitar work is exceptional and the tones he musters from his Strat are powerful and of the rawest blues.  The vocals and the harmonies are beautifully real, despite the loss of some of their original purity through the ravages of time; and I mean real in as much as the voices of men in their early 70’s should sound a little rougher and like they have been around the world many times.  The fact that they are not perfect anymore is a great and fascinating place to be, and I would prefer if they made more of that fact:  I hoped throughout the set that much of the backing band’s volume would be lost and bring these three very real voices right out for everyone to hear: warts and all.  Instead we have to marvel at the accomplished and fantastically qualified band, taking up most of the frequencies.

Another odd decision is the one to play two sets, with a twenty minute  interval, as if it isn’t hard enough to warm an audience one time, they want to try it twice!  I think this backfires as the second set splutters to a shaky start, after having already got a lot of the crowd going at the end of set one.  It is particularly strange, as other dates on the tour show a single set, so why they chose Birmingham for a two set show I do not understand.

The highlight of the night for me is Graham Nash’s simple rendition of ‘I Miss You’ from his 1974 album ‘Wild Tales’, played for their sound engineer whose birthday it is this very night.  It is a great song anyway (particularly its Gilbert O’Sullivan inspired arrangement), but this no frills, off the cuff version with piano and lead guitar shows it off perfectly.

Although Nash has the most amount of banter with the audience Crosby often boasts about his drug taking days and at one point when the smoke machine has gone into overdrive Nash quips that the stage looks like Crosby’s house during the ‘60s.  Crosby agrees, laughing.  He continues by saying that “Stills writes really great rock ‘n’ roll, Nash writes songs the whole world wants to sing, and I write the weird shit.”  And this is the image CSN try and portray, but it’s not really true anymore.  Crosby’s songs may have been fuelled by marijuana, but in the cold light of day, 40 years later, they just sound simple, delicate and mostly beautiful.  A more obvious sign that CSN’s position in the world is not so vital anymore is that they include again on this tour the Nash song ‘Chicago’ as if this is an example of one of his political anthems that the world wants to sing.  Nash gives a long introduction to the song explaining that when the band were asked to play at a fundraising gig for the Chicago 8 back in 1968, he had to say no because Stills and Young’s Conservative leanings led them to not want to be associated with the original controversy and Crosby and Nash would not do  it without them, despite actually wanting to.  Playing this song as if it could change the world is a major problem I have with the band:  there is almost an air of arrogance when they perform it, as if they actually did anything at all at the time, or as if the song says much at all about the trial and police brutality surrounding Bobby Seale (the lyrics are pretty non-specific except mentioning Chicago, and wanting to change the world, or is it just ‘rearrange the world’).

Firstly, CSNY did nothing in 1968 and secondly the song wasn’t even recorded and released until Nash’s debut solo album in 1971, when Seale was still in prison.  Hardly a protest song at all then, just a little dig at your mates.  As you can see, I have looked into this because it doesn’t sit right with me and CSNY are not alone in there double standards (ie wanting to appear ‘right on’ and fighting for people’s rights, but actually only feathering their own nests and egos) – indulge me a little further by reading this quote if you will, or if there is already steam shooting from your ears, move on now: “In the summer 1968, when Graham and everybody else really had a chance to change the world and show up in Chicago during the Democratic Convention and make their voices and their opinions heard, nobody did.  Although every popular musician of the day was invited to come and perform and stand up for something of great importance (i.e. ending a war!), all of them, not just Stephen Stills or Neil Young, but everybody including Graham Nash avoided Chicago like the plague.  Everybody conveniently forgot who and what had made them rich and famous once they got wind of what Daley and his thugs planned to do ‘to the hippies’.” (From Songfacts).

Nash himself, in the sleeve notes for ‘Chicago’ on his album ‘Songs for Beginners’ has admitted to being naive, but really one has to believe in something and stick to it, or be honest and just entertain.  Artists shouldn’t carry on this pretence that they are somehow willing to do anything to compromise their comfortable position in life, when they clearly are not.  As Billy Bragg once said, ‘Wearing badges is not enough in days like these’.  I will now jump off my soapbox.

For the discerning fan, I admit that you get your money’s worth with Crosby, Stills and Nash.  They play for almost two and a half hours over the two sets and cram in as many songs as they can from their joint and solo careers, including new ones.  Stills’ new song sounds vibrant and gutsy, despite having no chorus.

The usual rock n roll encore charade is used a couple of times and only then do the crowd find their feet and move to the stage for the sublime “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, where the three voices unite to flood the hall with their perfect harmony – they are exceptional at this it is true, and I do love it.  When they are focusing solely on entertaining they are masters, when they try and act like folk revolutionaries, doped up hippies or musically relevant to today’s musical landscape (when Nash performed on American Idol!), they are woefully out of touch.

I think if I had only seen these final moments of the show I would have been mostly uncritical of the performance, but the uneasy feeling I had during the show did not leave me during the days that follow and here is an honest account of how I see it.  It is my opinion and I welcome any thoughts or discussions to help me see it in a better light.

Review: Alan Neilson

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